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[Still Open] Low GPU usage resulting in low FPS


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Update: I'm putting this at the top to let any new viewers know what I'm narrowing down my problem to be. I get constant GPU spikes, causing my FPS to go up and down with my GPU. My VRAM is unusually high, where SPM reports it to be over 4GB most of the time, despite the 4GB limit on VRAM that DirectX9 has. Even when taking off my ENB, my GPU usage goes to even lower numbers (10-20%, despite the fact that if my GPU usage was higher I would be getting higher frames. This may be an indication that my VRAM is a bottleneck for my GPU, but I shouldn't be using up to 4GB of VRAM anyways so this confuses me. To top it off, my particular model of laptop has a battery drain issue, where it tries to take in more power than my PSU can supply me with, which may also contribute to stuttering. I am still conducting tests, although anyone with knowledge of these issues or knowledge about how to help with this using tools such as Nvidia Inspector, MSI Afterburner, and Intel XTU is encouraged to shed some light on these issues. I would be extremely appreciative.

 

Second Update: My VRAM limit issues have been resolved. I am getting less stuttering, but my GPU still has very low usage, giving me low FPS.

 

Additionally, if anyone has a DSR mesh pack for Lost Longswords or knows how to fix an issue where the nocked arrow in first person moves up and down along the bow shaft when looking up and down (while using Archery Gameplay Overhaul), please let me know.

 

 

^This is the TLDR for all four posts I have done; if you do not want to read everything, please, at least read this. Thank you to all that have helped so far.

 

 

This will be a fairly detailed post, and I'll be putting a lot of information related to my ini files and my setup in spoiler blocks down below. I don't expect any of you to read all of it, but to any who were generous enough to give me their time in doing so, I am so so grateful to you.

 

Anyways, a bit of info: I've been searching for mods, checking compatibility, updates, whether mods are dangerous or not and so-on so-on for a massively long amount of time now and I've finally got in game after doing so. Hip-hip-hooray. The game looks beautiful, most (see note down below) of my mods are working perfectly so far, and I'm happy. But, as soon as I step out of the starting dungeon in Alternate Start, I begin getting some massive lag. In outdoor environments, I usually get a decent 40 frames, which is honestly enough for me. Or, it would be, if it was stable. Lag spikes are pretty frequent and whenever a decent sized battle breaks out, the game gets choppy as all hell. In the alternate start dungeon, I got around 50-60 fps, whereas in Whiterun I get a pretty stable 25fps which occasional lag spikes. Dragonsreach gave me a mixture of 20-40.  

 

I've made the recommended ini tweaks and read about what they do, I have some software running to help with stability, I've stayed pretty clear of dangerous mods (although do have a few intensive ones), and I'm honestly not sure what to do now. I'm not the most advanced user by any means in these areas, but I have tried to search far and wide for what might help. I'd like to preserve the look and feel of my game while also focusing on the experience it can give me while playing (meaning graphics, gameplay mechanics, much-needed extra enemies, overhauls, quest mods, etc), and I've already taken about 20 mods out of my game, so I would prefer not to trim it further if I can manage that.

 

From the more experienced, advanced users, I wanted to ask you this: based on my hardware, software, setup, load order, ini files, anything related to my game, is there anything I can do to increase my framerate and stability? If removing mods is my only choice, given my hardware, what mods would give me the biggest increase in stability and performance were I to remove them?

 

 

Hardware:

 

 

ASUS ROG GL502VS

Intel i7 6700HQ @ 2.6Ghz (I've read that this can be turbo boosted to 3.5GHz; but I'm not sure how or if it would help. Not sure what the difference between this and overclocking is either.)

GeForce GTX 1070 8GB (originally thought I had only 4GB; I have 8)

16GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM

250GB SSD (with 45/237GB currently free)

Windows 10 Home

 

I've been playing other games such as Witcher 3 (with several graphical and Reshade mods), Dark Souls 3, and Dying Light all at Ultra settings and with no issue whatsoever. These are definitely better optimized than Skyrim and that affects the performance quite a lot, but I thought I would mention it.

 

I'm guessing that my CPU is unable to properly keep up with my GPU, causing my fluctuation of fps (unsure though).

 

 

 

Software:

 

 

Most importantly, I use Mod Organizer, and my load order was arranged with LOOT and then further manually arranged based on mod author instructions. The mods in my left pane are all set up in a way that will have what needs to be overwritten getting overwritten.

Also yes, mods marked as dirty by LOOT have been cleaned with TES5Edit.

When I run Skyrim, I have Nvidia Inspector set up like the STEP guide shows (except that I cap my fps at 58 through here, instead of using VSync options in the ini files or otherwise).

I also have CleanMem set to clean system memory every 2 minutes, as well as the TimerTool set on 1.0ms.

I'd like to delve more into the GPU/CPU options I find in Nvidia Inspector and Intel Extreme Tuning Utility; but I honestly know nothing about either, and to avoid damaging my laptop in any unnecessary way, I haven't touched them.

 

 

 

Load Order:

 

 

Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
HearthFires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp
Skyrim Project Optimization - Full Version.esm
WM Flora Fixes.esp
EFFCore.esm
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esm
hdtHighHeel.esm
ETaC - RESOURCES.esm
ImCh.esm
RSkyrimChildren.esm
ImCh HF.esm
ImCh DB.esm
ImCh DG.esm
CompanionArissa.esm
Gray Fox Cowl.esm
notice board.esp
MolagBalsInferno.esm
FNIS.esp
SOSRaceMenu.esp
XPMSE.esp
TKDodge.esp
FNIS_PCEA2.esp
Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
Remodeled Armor - Underwear.esp
WetandCold.esp
AOS.esp
Traps Are Dangerous.esp
WM Trap Fixes.esp
VioLens.esp
Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp
Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
SFO - Dragonborn.esp
Enhanced Landscapes.esp
BetterQuestObjectives.esp
Better Stealth AI for Followers.esp
When Vampires Attack.esp
SimplyKnock.esp
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
ABT - Recover 50% Less Arrows and Bolts.esp
SkyUI.esp
Grimy Utilities Interface.esp
SkyTweak.esp
Dual Sheath Redux.esp
iActivate.esp
LootandDegradation.esp
AcquisitiveSoulGemMultithreaded.esp
LostGrimoire.esp
betterwards.esp
MoreWards.esp
FISS.esp
Schlongs of Skyrim - Light.esp
3DNPC.esp
Prometheus_No_snow_Under_the_roof.esp
Enhanced Landscapes - Dead Marsh.esp
Cutting Room Floor.esp
Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
Clothing & Clutter Fixes.esp
Complete Crafting Overhaul_Remade.esp
Radiant and Unique Potions Poisons and Booze.esp
Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer - Dragonborn.esp
Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
DeadlySpellImpacts.esp
WARZONES - Civil Unrest.esp
Skyrim Immersive Creatures.esp
Skyrim Immersive Creatures - DLC2.esp
High Level Enemies - SIC.esp
Rebirth Monster.esp
dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
WARZONES - DLC - Assault Attack.esp
Book Covers Skyrim.esp
Blues Skyrim.esp
Book of UUNP Iron And Steel.esp
Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer.esp
TrueStorms.esp
Weapons & Armor_TrueWeaponsLvlLists.esp
ShezrieOldHroldanVer2.esp
Settlements Expanded.esp
UltimateCombat.esp
Helgen Reborn.esp
Realistic Boat Bobbing.esp
KS Hairdo's.esp
Skyrim Bridges.esp
fallentreebridges.esp
PC Head Tracking - MCM.esp
Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim.esp
Birdsofskyrim.esp
OBIS.esp
Holidays.esp
Ambriel.esp
Blowing in the Wind.esp
MoonAndStar_MAS.esp
Undeath.esp
Mortal Enemies.esp
Dragon Combat Overhaul.esp
dD-No Spinning Death Animation Merged.esp
MrissiTailOfTroubles.esp
Aurlyn.esp
BirdsHFclean.esp
skyBirds - Airborne Perching Birds.esp
Sacrosanct - Vampires of Skyrim.esp
zMirai.esp
AnonLarge.esp     <--------(see contents below)
DeadlyDragons.esp
NARC-Deadly Dragons.esp
Natural Lighting Vivid Atmospherics TS.esp
Toxicity.esp
Thieves Guild Requirements.esp
WetandCold - Ashes.esp
Clockwork.esp
Inconsequential NPCs.esp
EFFDialogue.esp
WayshrinesIFT.esp
Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
Aurora - Standing Stones of Skyrim.esp
SmallMerge4.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Better Skill and Quest Books Names.esp
aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp
Atlas Legendary.esp
Heimfeigr.esp
CFTO.esp
Inigo.esp
AnonymousMerge1.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Run For Your Lives.esp
Unique Uniques.esp
Fantasy Soundtrack Project - Combat.esp
SMIM-Merged-All.esp
UniqueBorderGates-All.esp
crystalcreek-mansion.esp
RSChildren - Complete.esp
Immersive Wenches.esp
Immersive Horses.esp
Lore Weapon Expansion.esp
ImmersiveSpells.esp
Bring Out Your Dead - Legendary Edition.esp
Immersive Patrols II.esp
Craftable Horse Barding.esp
flaho_shi_eagles_nest_ENG.esp
SofiaFollower.esp
DawnguardArsenal.esp
Remodeled Armor - Vanilla Replacer - Dawnguard.esp
hillinalta2.esp
Dreamborne Islands.esp
LABikiniLight.esp
Fantasy Soundtrack Project.esp
Vigilant.esp
CaranthirTowerReborn.esp
LADX.esp
LostLongSwords.esp
SmallMerge3.esp     <--------(see contents below)
SPTConsistentOlderPeople.esp
HothFollower.esp
KNM_Mour.esp
Recorder Follower Base.esp
FNISspells.esp
ForgottenCity.esp
WheelsOfLull.esp
Darkend.esp
TimingIsEverything.esp
KNM_AcalyphaFollower.esp
BlackreachRailroadNew.esp
TradeRoutes.esp
ETaC - Complete.esp
Immersive Solstheim.esp
Immersive Orc Strongholds.esp
Point The Way.esp
TradeBarter.esp
MzarkWonders.esp
The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp
HoldBorderBanners.esp
Minerva.esp
Shindara.esp
Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
OBISDB.esp
Deadly Wenches.esp
Serana.esp
Valerica.esp
Lock Overhaul.esp
DSerArcheryGameplayOverhaul.esp
Moonlight Tales Special Edition.esp
Followers_StealthKills.esp
iHUD.esp
Extended UI.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
RaceMenuOverlays.esp
SmallMerge2.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Imperious - Races of Skyrim.esp
Footprints.esp
SmallMerge1.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Toccata.esp
zMirai_DB.esp
SmallMerge5.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Standalone Armors.esp     <--------(about 15 standalone armors, not too many)
RealisticWaterTwo.esp
RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp
Realistic Waters - Merged.esp     <--------(the other four Realistic Waters esps)
Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp
AnonMerge.esp     <--------(see contents below)
Serana Dialogue Edit.esp
SexLab-AmorousAdventures.esp
DesyncBirdsOfPrey.esp
HighHrothgarWindowGlow.esp
SolitudeExterior.esp
WhiterunExterior.esp
The Ordinary Women.esp
The Ordinary Women - USLEEP.esp
Bijin AIO.esp
MLU.esp
PermaZONESLegendaryHardcore.esp
Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim.esp
Summermyst + True Weapons Patch.esp      <--------(patches for Summermyst, Loot and Degradation, and WAFR True Weapons; about 4 esps)
Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
ELFX - Exteriors.esp
ELFXEnhancer.esp
3DNPC CCOR.esp
ETaC - Complete CRF Patch.esp
PatchesComplete.esp     <--------(boatload of various patches, about 120. Patches were first patched, and then that patch was included in the merged file.)
MLU - Inigo.esp
ETaC - Complete ELFX Patch.esp
ETaC - Complete RS Patch.esp
MLU - CACO-Ordinatored.esp
iActivate Patch.esp     <--------(generated by iActivate patcher script)
ASIS-Dependency.esp
Scarcity - Less Loot Mod.esp
Scarcity - 4x Merchant Item Rarity.esp
Scarcity - 6x Loot Rarity.esp
Smashed Patch.esp     <--------(created by Mator Smash, with the Smash.All setting; Bijin and The Ordinary Women were excluded)
ASIS.esp     <--------(created with about half the load order loaded)
One ImCh Patcher.esp
Dual Sheath Redux Patch.esp
DynDOLOD.esp     <--------(all worlds selected, high setting, almost all options)

Contents of AnonLarge.esp:

DragonShoutVoice.esp
Beards.esp
Brows.esp
SGEyebrows.esp
HitStop.esp
SimpleTaxes.esp
Skyrim Particle Patch for ENB - Flame Atronach Fix.esp
TKRecoil.esp
AnonymousPeople.esp
Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp
High Level Enemies - Increased Max Resists.esp
High Level Enemies - Raised Ability Caps.esp
IHSS.esp
mintylightningmod.esp
moveit.esp
NB-Scars.esp
NosPiercedEarsAll.esp
Remove Interior Fog V2 - Full Version.esp
UnreadBooksGlow.esp
Weapon Parry Module.esp
WondersofWeather.esp
YourMarketStall.esp

Contents of SmallMerge4.esp:

Aetherial Veins - Full.esp
Aetherial Veins - Scrolls Add-on.esp
Aetherial Veins - Visuals and Sounds.esp
RUSTIC SOULGEMS - Sorted.esp

Contents of AnonymousMerge1.esp:

ABT - Faster Arrows Improved +50%.esp
ABT - Faster Bolts Improved +50%.esp
ABT - Loot Arrows -75%.esp
ABT - Merchants Arrows HARDCORE.esp
ABT - Progressive Damage (Vanilla).esp
more idle markers.esp
notice board - dragonborn patch.esp
sandboxcylinderheight.esp
The Honored Dead.esp
Vampire Lord Serana Fixed.esp 

Contents of SmallMerge3.esp:

Soljund's Sinkhole.esp
CoveredEntrances.esp
LACompLight.esp
Storefront.esp
Whistling Mine.esp 

Contents of SmallMerge2.esp:

BS-TheHag_Overlays.esp
mjhReducedGoldRewards.esp
RaceMenuMorphsUUNP.esp
The Huntsman.esp
TheAlchemistHandbook.esp
TheCoenaculiUNP.esp
TheEyesOfBeauty.esp
UniqueBows.esp 

Contents of SmallMerge1.esp:

Toccata Mannequin HF.esp
Dead Body Collision.esp
Realistic AI Detection - High Interior, Medium Exterior.esp
suspiciouscityguards.esp
AHZmoreHUD.esp
Auto Unequip Ammo.esp
spookier ghosts.esp
JZBai_ThrowingWpnsLite.esp 

Contents of SmallMerge5.esp:

Atlas Compass Tweaks.esp
JaxonzDiagnostics.esp
Vivace.esp
Chaconne.esp
Succubus-san.esp 

Contents of AnonMerge.esp:

UIExtensions.esp
ORM-Arvak.esp
Skytest Creature Extension.esp
Cidhna Mine Expanded.esp
Skyrim Better Roads - All In One - Merged.esp
Inconsequential NPCs - Enhancement.esp
DIVERSE SKYRIM.esp
Crime Overhaul.esp
DragonbornAscendant.esp
Hunters Not Bandits.esp
AnonSmash.esp      <--------(individual Smashed Patch created for this particular merge) 

Merged plugins were created based on load order and lack of conflicts between contributing plugins. No assets were merged, just esp files.

 

 

 

skyrim.ini:

 

 

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1
iPresentInterval=0

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7
iMinGrassSize=70

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Invalidation.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
SInvalidationFile=

[Actor]
fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0
f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.5
f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=1.0
f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.3
f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.4

[Camera]
fOverShoulderPosX=0.0000

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0 

 

 

 

skyrimprefs.ini:

 

 

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=0
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=0
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000
iScreenShotIndex=20
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=250
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=800
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
bFXAAEnabled=1
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
fDecalLifetime=60
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bDeferredShadows=1
iVSyncPresentInterval=0

[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=0
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=0
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2

[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=1
bGeneralSubtitles=0
bShowCompass=1
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0360
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=0
bMouseAcceleration=1
bUseKinect=0

[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750

[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=486955121
fVal6=0.8500
uID6=522251
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=410705
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=486541405
fVal3=0.9000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612

[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0

[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20

[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60

[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=4

[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1 

 

 

 

skse.ini:

 

 

[General]
EnableDiagnostics=1
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048

[Memory]
defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=1024
scrapHeapSizeMB=256 

 

 

 

enblocal.ini:

 

 

The ENB I use is Rudy ENB for NLVA and I goddamn love it. It looks so beautiful; I just wish I could enjoy no stuttering with it as well.

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=true
InitProxyFunctions=true
ProxyLibrary=d3d9_smaa.dll

[GLOBAL]
UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false
UseDefferedRendering=true
ForceFakeVideocard=false
IgnoreCreationKit=true

[PERFORMANCE]
SpeedHack=true
EnableOcclusionCulling=true
EnableZPrepass=false

[MULTIHEAD]
ForceVideoAdapterIndex=false
VideoAdapterIndex=0

[MEMORY]
ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false
ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true
DisableDriverMemoryManager=false
DisablePreloadToVRAM=false
EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false
ReservedMemorySizeMb=128
VideoMemorySizeMb=4096
EnableCompression=false
AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

[WINDOW]
ForceBorderless=false
ForceBorderlessFullscreen=false

[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=true
MaxAnisotropy=8
EnableVSync=false
AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=false
VSyncSkipNumFrames=0
ForceLodBias=false
LodBias=0.0

[LIMITER]
WaitBusyRenderer=false
EnableFPSLimit=false
FPSLimit=60.0

[INPUT]
//shift
KeyCombination=16
//f12
KeyUseEffect=123
//home
KeyFPSLimit=36
//num /       106
KeyShowFPS=106
//print screen
KeyScreenshot=45
//enter
KeyEditor=13
//f4
KeyFreeVRAM=115
KeyBruteForce=66
KeyDepthOfField=118

[ADAPTIVEQUALITY]
Enable=false
Quality=1
DesiredFPS=20.0

[ANTIALIASING]
EnableEdgeAA=true
EnableTemporalAA=false
EnableSubPixelAA=true
EnableTransparencyAA=false

[FIX]
FixGameBugs=true
FixParallaxBugs=true
FixAliasedTextures=true
IgnoreLoadingScreen=true
IgnoreInventory=true
FixSsaoWaterTransparency=true
FixSsaoHairTransparency=true
FixTintGamma=true
RemoveBlur=true
FixSubSurfaceScattering=true
FixSkyReflection=true
FixCursorVisibility=true
FixParallaxTerrain=false
FixLag=false

[LONGEXPOSURE]
EnableLongExposureMode=false
Time=1.0
BlendMax=0.0

[THREADS]
DataSyncMode=0
PriorityMode=0
EnableUnsafeFixes=false

 

 

 

Additional Notes:

 

 

I use a number of texture mods although I try not to overdo it. I use Noble Skyrim and Skyrim HD as a base, and have added a few other aMidianBorn textures+Book of Silence, a good amount of Gamwich textures, and some other various popular retextures such as Ruins Clutter Improved and Ultimate Fire Effects HD. I have no parallax, and the only 4K I have are a few textures included in the 2K pack of Noble Skyrim, as well as the uncompressed files from Fair Skin Complexion (assuming the uncompressed main files are 4K, I couldn't actually find it written down anywhere).

 

I have about 250 custom animations from around 15-16 mods, not including an extra 220 loaded in PCEA2. No sexlab or OSex mods.

 

I am also using Enhanced Landscapes with DynDOLOD set on High; and my graphical options in the Skyrim launcher have everything set to Ultra (minus Anisotropic Filtering and Antialiasing because the ENB handles those), with the exception that Shadow Detail is set to Medium.

 

I have ASIS as well, but mostly for the perk and spell features; additional spawns are set to very very low.

 

Warzones settings are set so that every battle is off in the MCM(I turned them off because of the lag), and although I would love to use these features, I'm okay with just the Assault Attack battle locations and the random warzones/ambushes (although I won't be able to use even those if this continues).

 

I also have Crash Fixes with UseOSAllocators=1.

 

 

 

And lastly, I have not been experiencing any compatibility or buggy-mod-related issues so far, except for one: there are lots of neck seams (not to mention the horrendous non-Bijin faces) on my Bijin women, and I'm not quite sure why:

 

 

I tried setnpcweight 20 on JenassaIrileth (oops!), and then did disable and enable in the console. Nothing changed except her weight. I want my Bijin faces ;(

Screen_Shot19.png

 

 

 

For those of you who have made it this far, and to those of you who didn't but will offer me advice anyways: you have my deepest gratitude. I've literally been working on this mod list for over the course of about 15 months (busy periods included), so your help is so, so deeply appreciated.

 

Edit: Please excuse potential typos. <3

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I'm running a gamming laptop (HP Omen) as well and was experiencing some lag like what you describe.  Tried every game tweak I could find and nothing helped.  It turned out to be the power supply.  I had to upgrade form a 120 watt to a 150 watt.  Looks like your machine can have a 180 watt or a 230 Watt. https://www.google.com/search?q=ASUS+ROG+GL502VS+power+supply&biw=1536&bih=771&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB0NvDxtHUAhUl24MKHR73AxwQsxgIJQ  Try disconnecting the power supply and running the game just on battery and see what kind of frames you get.

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There are 3 things I would do first:

1- get the Skyrim Performance Monitor from the Nexus and see if you are maxing out your GPU and when. If it is outside most of the time you may want to either reduce some enb settings or drop to a lower resolution texture set for landscaping and such (I use 1k textures for these). High resolution textures for common clothes can also eat memory quickly.

2- go through your mods and look for ones that constantly update the world around you, they can have a major impact as they scan the area especially if they do it every few seconds.

3- look through your papyrus log for repeating errors as well as signs of mods constantly running scripts as they can slow things down and cause instability down the road.

 

Mods like footprints and such are a major drain as each footprint has to be tracked and removed after a certain amount of time which eats up a lot of resources.

 

As for your system I would increase the processor speed if possible as Skyrim is very processor bound. I am running an i5 2500k @ 3.3 ghz and for my GPU I have a pair of AMD 280x's w/ 3gb running together and have maxed them out with enb's easily so that may be another issue. When you use the Performance Monitor if you are not close to maxing out your VRAM but your GPU is running near 100% all the time the enb is likely the issue. I recommend setting your game up so you only run at about 90% of capacity so you have some overhead to handle any spikes that come along.

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Just to put out some things that others might miss, try changing the display resolution from your skyrim settings. It actually helped Skyrim run on my laptop which couldn't run well on its native rez.

 

You can also try out Beth ini. It's an exe from nexus. Tinker with their better settings for your skyrim config.

 

And finally, in ENB local, set this:

DataSyncMode=2
PriorityMode=3

 

Search up ENBOOST on nexus if you're too lazy. It's a really good setting for low-fps runs, and it's supported by the owner of ENB

 

Edit: I just read that you cleaned mods with TES5EDIT. 

1. You're sure it was alright to clean them? (If you're sure, that's fine)

2. Did you also clean the esms?

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I'm running a gamming laptop (HP Omen) as well and was experiencing some lag like what you describe.  Tried every game tweak I could find and nothing helped.  It turned out to be the power supply.  I had to upgrade form a 120 watt to a 150 watt.  Looks like your machine can have a 180 watt or a 230 Watt. https://www.google.com/search?q=ASUS+ROG+GL502VS+power+supply&biw=1536&bih=771&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB0NvDxtHUAhUl24MKHR73AxwQsxgIJQ  Try disconnecting the power supply and running the game just on battery and see what kind of frames you get.

 

 

 

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I did a bit of research and it seems that every model of the GL502VS (mine) actually has PSU issues. The PSU ASUS ships the laptops with is a 180W PSU, but the draw from the system, particularly the GPU, is higher than that. This is leading to decreased performance for some users and a battery drain even when plugged in. Some users have also tried larger PSUs made for other laptops (only ones that actually work with the GL502VS), and they report no change, meaning that the issue likely lies within the BIOS. Since I bought this laptop, there have been two BIOS updates I haven't installed, one of which claims to help with battery issues (not mentioned what those issues are). I have since updated my BIOS and confirmed with my laptop that the battery drain does indeed happen. However, I have played Witcher 3 for long periods of time with no stuttering or fps drops whatsoever so I am determined to make Skyrim work as well. I did some testing related to this down below. 

 

Additionally, where did you see that there are 230W PSUs available for this model? I did a search and I couldn't find anything.

 

 

 

 

There are 3 things I would do first:

1- get the Skyrim Performance Monitor from the Nexus and see if you are maxing out your GPU and when. If it is outside most of the time you may want to either reduce some enb settings or drop to a lower resolution texture set for landscaping and such (I use 1k textures for these). High resolution textures for common clothes can also eat memory quickly.

2- go through your mods and look for ones that constantly update the world around you, they can have a major impact as they scan the area especially if they do it every few seconds.

3- look through your papyrus log for repeating errors as well as signs of mods constantly running scripts as they can slow things down and cause instability down the road.

 

Mods like footprints and such are a major drain as each footprint has to be tracked and removed after a certain amount of time which eats up a lot of resources.

 

As for your system I would increase the processor speed if possible as Skyrim is very processor bound. I am running an i5 2500k @ 3.3 ghz and for my GPU I have a pair of AMD 280x's w/ 3gb running together and have maxed them out with enb's easily so that may be another issue. When you use the Performance Monitor if you are not close to maxing out your VRAM but your GPU is running near 100% all the time the enb is likely the issue. I recommend setting your game up so you only run at about 90% of capacity so you have some overhead to handle any spikes that come along.

 

 

 

Thank you for the suggestions. So far I haven't gone through my mod list or papyrus to look for any scripts or mods that scan the world like you mentioned, but that may not be necessary, as I found some very interesting things in my tests with the performance monitor.

 

I ran four tests, and in all four, I start in Dragonsreach, go out into Whiterun, and then leave Whiterun and spend some time in the surrounding areas. The time in each is varied per test, so I can't tell you where and when each of these sections end in the graphs, but I can tell you my observations for each:

-Dragonsreach: Around 30 frames, but generally stable. No/little stuttering, moderate VRAM usage, low GPU/CPU usage

-Whiterun: Varying frames from 15-35 depending on the part of the city. Decent stuttering encountered, moderate-high VRAM usage, varied GPU usage, low CPU usage

-Whiterun Exteriors: Varying frames but generally around 40. Decent stuttering encountered, high VRAM usage, varied GPU usage, low CPU usage

-A small distance away from Whiterun: Good frames and generally stable, around 50-60. Little stuttering, high VRAM usage, varied GPU usage, low CPU usage

 

Here are my four tests:

1) Normal runthrough

2) GPU Base clock at -100MHz

3) GPU Base clock at -200MHz

4) GPU Base clock at -200MHz with NLVA ENB files instead of Rudy ENB

 

The reason I underclocked the GPU was because of my above-mentioned PSU issues. I did so in an attempt to reduce power consumption of my GPU so that it would run more stably (not sure if this had an opposite effect, but I will share my results).

 

These are the graphs from SPO, the first test run doesn't have the max/min/average numbers because I didn't know the SPO screenshot function didn't include those parts.

Again, these tests are not perfect controlled experiments, and there are discrepancies in some average numbers because I spent different amounts of time in different performance-friendly or non-friendly areas. 

 

 

Screenshot_2.jpg

Screenshot_1.pngScreenshot_2.png

Screenshot_3.png

 

 

 

From my tests I found that there are quite a lot of times when my GPU doesn't go to full usage, and FPS is tied to this. For example, my GPU usage will be around 30-40%, and my FPS will also be extremely low. As my GPU usage climbs up, so does my FPS. As my GPU gets to a higher usage, my FPS will also be high, and my game will run smoothly, until my GPU usage drops suddenly to 30-40% again and my FPS does as well, causing the stuttering. My CPU stays at a pretty stable level, but is also at very low usage. My VRAM and RAM usage are both extremely high, however. For most of the time in the exteriors, my VRAM reported staying around 4300Mb, even when my GPU usage dropped. This is strange because I also heard that there is a 4GB VRAM cap with DirectX 9 and Windows 10, so I'm not sure why SPO is reporting more than 4300Mb. There were occasions when my VRAM dropped suddenly after hitting around 4GB, and my FPS would stutter a bit as well. However, these occasions were very few, and by and large SPO reported my VRAM being extremely high, as well as my RAM, which was around 5000Mb. I'm also wondering why my RAM usage is high when I heard that Skyrim can only draw around 4GB of RAM even with ENBoost.

 

Out of my tests, the ones where I underclocked my GPU and used Rudy ENB were the most stable, although there was little difference overall, and all of my above-mentioned problems I had occurred in every test. If someone knows how I could keep my GPU usage around 90%, or why it keeps dropping suddenly, that would be a serious life-saver. Could this be tied to my PSU issue?

 

Additionally, any insights anyone has on my tests would be greatly appreciated. I may have run the tests, but I know little of how to read them and draw more useful information.

 

 

 

Just to put out some things that others might miss, try changing the display resolution from your skyrim settings. It actually helped Skyrim run on my laptop which couldn't run well on its native rez.

 

You can also try out Beth ini. It's an exe from nexus. Tinker with their better settings for your skyrim config.

 

And finally, in ENB local, set this:

DataSyncMode=2
PriorityMode=3

 

Search up ENBOOST on nexus if you're too lazy. It's a really good setting for low-fps runs, and it's supported by the owner of ENB

 

Edit: I just read that you cleaned mods with TES5EDIT. 

1. You're sure it was alright to clean them? (If you're sure, that's fine)

2. Did you also clean the esms?

 

 

 

Thank you for the suggestions. It's super late for me right now so I'll try some of these suggestions tomorrow, but I'll respond to a couple things you mentioned.

 

When I initially launched Skyrim, it would not start and gave me an error relating to my resolution size. When I opened the launcher, it had it set to native resolution so I assumed it was okay and re-tried, but it failed to work again. It turned out I had 1920x1200 set in my ini files, and I changed it to 1920x1080 afterwards and everything works fine. Is this what you're referring to, or is there an extra step to make Skyrim read my resolution solely from the ini and ignore everything else?

 

Also yes, the TES5Edit mods I cleaned were safe for cleaning, and I only cleaned about 7 esps in all. I also cleaned the masters as the TES5Edit website instructed (excluding Skyrim.esm, as the website instructed as well).

 

 

 

Lastly, I also had the chance to look more into my ugly faces problem. I am having this issue with every modified NPC in Bijin, The Ordinary Women, and RS Children. I tried enabling and disabling NPCs from all three and nothing changed. I then loaded Bijin and any mods loading after Bijin in TES5Edit to see if anything was being overwritten, and it turned out ASIS.esp was overwriting the changes and reverting the facial morphs of modified NPCs back to vanilla morphs. I haven't edited ASIS.esp or rebuilt the ASIS patch yet, but I plan on doing so tomorrow to see if that fixes it. I also didn't check The Ordinary Women or RS Children in TES5Edit yet, but I'm guessing ASIS is doing a similar thing to them.

 

Thank you everyone for all your help, and I hope I can get more of it, as it has put me on the right track so far.

 

 

EDIT: It appears I accidentally deleted the fourth graph, it has been re-added.

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https://laptopadapteronline.com/230W-ASUS-ROG-GL502VSDB71-AC-Adapter-Charger-Power-p-103870.html

 

Looks like this is the one you need.

 

You might want to call Asus customer support just to be sure.

 

 

 

Thank you! I'll check right on it; if this could solve all my issues (haha) that would be amazing. Doubt it will though; also I'm hoping that it's not too difficult to get one of these, seeing as I live in Japan.

 

 

 

Here is my update, with some more tests, that are in my opinion, MUCH much more interesting than my last tests. If anyone here is good with GPUs and GPU adjusting (overclocking, undervolting and such), please please look at this data and take a stab at what it may mean. I can follow this trail in the dark, but any lights you provide will make the path much easier to follow.

 

First thing's first, some good news: My ugly NPC problem is solved. ASIS was indeed the culprit. When it added new perks and spells and such to vanilla NPCs, the NPC beautifier mods were not loaded in the ASIS patcher, and thus ASIS used the vanilla NPC data as a base to add new perks and spells and then overwrote the NPC data from my other mods. Including the beautifier mods in the ASIS patcher by and large fixed the issue, but I did have to make a few manual edits in TES5Edit in order to add a few changes from other mods into the NPC data in the ASIS patch. Anyways, all done! No neck seams, no weird dark faces, no buggy HDT. Beautiful NPCs. Thank you thank you thank you.

 

Next up: I took a wooden bow model from the nexus and and used it to overwrite the wooden/long bow texture and mesh files. The mesh is appearing fine, but the textures are not, seeing as they are that strange yogurt-purple color. Any ideas why? The file names are exactly the same as in vanilla. How did real bows do this? Maybe understanding that would help.

 

 

Anyways, now for my performance tests: I've been reading more on the PSU thread related to my laptop (GL502VS), there was a guy who had been tinkering with his settings quite a bit in MSI Afterburner and Intel XTU, and he tuned it to the point that the games he was playing got an extra 20 frames in some cases, but battery consumption was minimal. He did this by undervolting his CPU by -150mV and applying a custom voltage curve in MSI Afterburner. For those who are curious on what curve he applied, his post, with a picture of his curve is here.

 

Anyways, I did three tests, with all three of them applying this exact curve in MSI Afterburner and the -150mV change to my CPU:

1) CPU -150mV, custom voltage curve for GPU

2) CPU -150mV, custom voltage curve for GPU, power management mode in nVidia Inspector set to "Prefer maximum power"

3) CPU -150mV, custom voltage curve for GPU, power management mode in nVidia Inspector set to "PREFERRED_PSTATE_PREFER_CONSISTENT_PERFORMANCE"

 

Here are the graphs from the performance monitor:

 

 

Screenshot_4.pngScreenshot_5.png

Screenshot_6.png

 

 

 

First off, I want to note that loading up and launching the game took a bit longer in all three of these tests compared to my previous tests.

 

In the first test, I seemed to have a more stable framerate in Dragonsreach, but nothing too different from usual. As I stepped outside, my frames seemed a bit more stable, but again, not enough to make a big difference. Framerate and GPU usage were still going up and down and up and down. Same thing with outside Whiterun (small thing to note: approaching the gate to leave Whiterun, as well as walking the path from the Whiterun drawbridge to the first gate give extremely stable performance, and they have in all of my tests). Overall, things seemed a bit more stable, and power consumption seemed to be capped to a certain extent as intended. However, my GPU still was going up and down. Another thing I wanted to note is that compared to my previous tests, my VRAM and RAM in this test were even higher than usual.

 

In the second test, throughout the entirety of Whiterun my GPU usage would not go above 40%, and as a result, my frames were kept very low the entire time. The results were stability, but very poor performance. When I got outside, my performance went up as usual, and less stuttering occurred, although I still received some. However, just as I looked at my GPU temperature and thought, "wow that seems quite hot", my game crashed. Similar to my other test, VRAM usage and RAM usage were extremely high. I noticed that before I get a good distance away from Whiterun, my game is usually more stable, and my GPU usage is usually higher when my VRAM is under 4GB. However, when it goes over 4GB, my GPU usage goes down and stays down.

 

In the third test, Dragonsreach was the same as normal, it seemed a bit better actually. Not very much VRAM usage. After I get into Whiterun, and walk around for a bit, my fps plummets, and stays there the entire time. But, counter to usual, my GPU usage stayed maxed throughout the entire time, minus a few drops that went all the way down to 0% usage. Again, the complete opposite from my previous tests, GPU usage was stable and stayed at 99-100% (too high of course but still), but my frames stayed around 9-10 the entire time. Going outside didn't fix this much. I did, however, notice that my VRAM usage was much, much lower than usual. It seems that whenever my GPU usage is high, my VRAM usage is low, and vice versa. VRAM usage was still around 3000-3200MB, which is quite high, but much lower comparatively.

 

 

 

Small Update:

 

I just tested out the enblocal.ini settings DataSyncMode=2 and PriorityMode=3 after resetting my CPU and GPU voltage and clocks to default. Nothing seemed too different, and I experienced stuttering inside Whiterun as usual. As I went outside, I felt that it was actually less stable and I had less frames than usual. As I got further away, my stability increased quite significantly but my frames did not increase as much as usual when I go a distance away from Whiterun. What exactly do these settings do? I did a bit of searching but I am not too clear on their purpose.

 

Also, I discovered two more little mod issues. Lost Longswords does not have left-handed DSR meshes, which is quite annoying. If anyone knows where I can download a mesh pack, please let me know. I'm searching for one currently. In addition, I am getting a bit of light flickering in both third-person and first-person when swinging weapons. I'm guessing that I have a mod (I'm not sure if this is vanilla or not actually) that adds wind slashes to my weapon swings, and my ENB is making these appear a tad bit too white for my taste. When I swing a weapon and get stuttering at the same time, this white light appears as a thin, diagonal bar across my screen. This isn't too much of an issue, and eliminating my stuttering issue would get rid of the majority of this, so I'm not too concerned.

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I'll make this as brief as possible. I have the same exact problem running two 980 Ti's in SLI with an i7 4790k. JK's Skyrim along with Expanded Towns and Cities, along with 4k textures almost everywhere, along with tons of script heavy mods (I think I have about 60 items in my Skyrim Configuration Menu) really puts a heavy load on my GPUs. I'm also running it at 3440x1440p.

Using Skyrim Performance Monitor, the bulk of my lag spikes and stutters occur due to running out of VRAM. My CPU hangs around at 60%, yours shouldn't have a problem either. Skyrim's script system relies a lot on your FPS performance, so worry about fixing this first. If you really want to save the look of your Skyrim, I highly suggest going back to Windows 7. Windows 10 has accidentally placed a 4GB limit on DX9 applications (such as Skyrim) and there will never be a way around this until the next OS rendition.

The only way to fix problems like ours is to get a 1080 Ti with 11GB of VRAM and continue staying on Win 7. This will likely be the only true solution. Also, I didn't read too much from the above as there was a lot but running Ordenator to optimize textures and turning off VSYNC completely and removing the FPS limiter helped me immensely... for now. Although people say removing the FPS limiter will cause havok physx problems, I just want a smoother Skyrim experience and I haven't seen anything strange beyond the usual glitches even if the FPS limiter wasn't removed. Like mammoths loading up in the sky from a far distance (very rarely). Happens in vanilla Skyrim anyway.

Also, contrary to what some people say, SLI helps Skyrim pretty well. Expect to get an avg of 15-20fps performance boost with SLI.

I have messed with my .ini files to the point where my mind is going insane. In the end it really comes down to the VRAM.

 

Other things that will help but will sacrifice looks is to increase the grass size iMinGrassSize in SkyrimPrefs.ini. 20 is default and some people like to increase it to 70 or 80 for a lot of performance boost. Decreasing Ugridstoload will also help immensely at the cost of visuals. And finally, lowering the values of shadow resolutions in the .ini files will also guarantee amazing performance.

I refuse to do any of these things. My grass size stays at the default 20 which looks amazing, my ugrids stays at 5, and all my shadow resolutions stay at 4096. Lol!

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DataSync and Priority in ENBLOCAL is mainly to decrease lag for minimal increase in performance (no change in FPS).

It's like making Skyrim playable even at lower FPS coupled with stuttering and general lag. 

 

In Nexus's ENBoost page, there are two configs for this setting, and in general, if these don't help in the end, it's better to remove them for better performance in the long run.

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I'll make this as brief as possible. I have the same exact problem running two 980 Ti's in SLI with an i7 4790k. JK's Skyrim along with Expanded Towns and Cities, along with 4k textures almost everywhere, along with tons of script heavy mods (I think I have about 60 items in my Skyrim Configuration Menu) really puts a heavy load on my GPUs. I'm also running it at 3440x1440p.
Using Skyrim Performance Monitor, the bulk of my lag spikes and stutters occur due to running out of VRAM. My CPU hangs around at 60%, yours shouldn't have a problem either. Skyrim's script system relies a lot on your FPS performance, so worry about fixing this first. If you really want to save the look of your Skyrim, I highly suggest going back to Windows 7. Windows 10 has accidentally placed a 4GB limit on DX9 applications (such as Skyrim) and there will never be a way around this until the next OS rendition.
The only way to fix problems like ours is to get a 1080 Ti with 11GB of VRAM and continue staying on Win 7. This will likely be the only true solution. Also, I didn't read too much from the above as there was a lot but running Ordenator to optimize textures and turning off VSYNC completely and removing the FPS limiter helped me immensely... for now. Although people say removing the FPS limiter will cause havok physx problems, I just want a smoother Skyrim experience and I haven't seen anything strange beyond the usual glitches even if the FPS limiter wasn't removed. Like mammoths loading up in the sky from a far distance (very rarely). Happens in vanilla Skyrim anyway.
Also, contrary to what some people say, SLI helps Skyrim pretty well. Expect to get an avg of 15-20fps performance boost with SLI.
I have messed with my .ini files to the point where my mind is going insane. In the end it really comes down to the VRAM.

Other things that will help but will sacrifice looks is to increase the grass size iMinGrassSize in SkyrimPrefs.ini. 20 is default and some people like to increase it to 70 or 80 for a lot of performance boost. Decreasing Ugridstoload will also help immensely at the cost of visuals. And finally, lowering the values of shadow resolutions in the .ini files will also guarantee amazing performance.
I refuse to do any of these things. My grass size stays at the default 20 which looks amazing, my ugrids stays at 5, and all my shadow resolutions stay at 4096. Lol!

 

 

 

Honestly, I don't think my GPU is working hard enough at all, I think that something is holding it back completely. I've done some tests where my VRAM goes up quite high, to what Performance Monitor says is 4400MB (again, quite confused about this because I'm aware of the 4GB VRAM limit, maybe SPM is reporting it incorrectly?), but my GPU will stay at around 20% sometimes while going through Whiterun, which is why my fps is also so low. I barely have any 4K textures, I play on 1080p, a lot of my mods have scripts, but only a few are truly script-heavy and almost none are built to constantly fire no matter what. After reading a lot of reports from people in a similar situation, my GPU should be able to handle this easily, so I have no idea why it's staying at such a low usage. If it really does come down to VRAM as you say, then SPM must be incorrectly reporting my VRAM usage at times, and I need to find out what it really is, because it might be spiking constantly just like my GPU usage does sometimes.

 

After some searching related to my issues, I found out that the cause might be a bottleneck, and that my GPU is actually quite powerful, but something is holding it back, and causing it to dip up and down. Looking at my CPU usage, I doubt that the bottleneck is my CPU, so it would have to be my VRAM, in which case going to Windows 7 truly would be helpful. However, I really love Windows 10 actually, and it came pre-installed on this laptop so I would need to get a new copy of Windows 7 I'm guessing if I want to install it. Even better, if I could run Windows 10 and Windows 7 on here and only use Windows 7 for when I want to play Skyrim that would be great. My two questions on this are:

1) Do you know of any guides related to this or how to do this? I'll look for some myself, but a point in the right direction would be helpful

2) Would all of my files be preserved? If changing the OS or running both at the same time mean I need to back up all of my files and then re-insert them into my system it's going to be a slight pain.

 

Regarding VRAM and what I can do now, I'm going to try doing a test where I take off most of my HD textures and see what happens. I already did a test with no ENB down below.

 

 

 

DataSync and Priority in ENBLOCAL is mainly to decrease lag for minimal increase in performance (no change in FPS).

It's like making Skyrim playable even at lower FPS coupled with stuttering and general lag. 

 

In Nexus's ENBoost page, there are two configs for this setting, and in general, if these don't help in the end, it's better to remove them for better performance in the long run.

 

 

 

Thanks for letting me know; maybe I'll tweak them a bit and see what works.

 

 

First up: I fixed my missing long bow texture. I was unaware that mesh files had pre-defined texture paths, and I have since gone into NIFSkope and changed them to the proper texture. I also encountered an issue with my bow animations, where it turned out files from PCEA2 were overwriting the files I wanted to use; an easy fix. However, I did encounter a new issue where when I look up and down in first person with my arrow nocked, the arrow will move along the bow shaft instead of staying with my hand; super weird and not sure what's causing it, but I'll do some digging. I'm guessing it's related to Archery Gameplay Overhaul.

 

Next: I did a test, as mentioned above, where I took off my ENB and did a run through. This is the graph from SPM:

 

 

Screenshot_7.png

 

 

 

(This graph may have cut out a significant portion of my time spent inside the city walls, and lots of the patches where I have higher fps are either from spending some time away from Whiterun, or spending some time inside the MCM tweaking things)

 

It honestly didn't improve that much, although stability and fps definitely went up in some areas as expected (particularly stability). However, my VRAM was higher than usual (even when I'm using the ENB), and my GPU usage was lower than usual. It's like because my game didn't need to use my GPU as much as before it just stopped, and through Whiterun I had a GPU usage of 10%-20% alongside the poor, stuttering frames that I usually get. When I left Whiterun and got some distance away, my GPU usage went back up, but not as much as it usually does when I'm outside. And to reiterate: my VRAM was even higher than usual.

 

I'll do some more tests with textures and update back later.

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Honestly, I don't think my GPU is working hard enough at all, I think that something is holding it back completely. I've done some tests where my VRAM goes up quite high, to what Performance Monitor says is 4400MB (again, quite confused about this because I'm aware of the 4GB VRAM limit, maybe SPM is reporting it incorrectly?), but my GPU will stay at around 20% sometimes while going through Whiterun, which is why my fps is also so low. I barely have any 4K textures, I play on 1080p, a lot of my mods have scripts, but only a few are truly script-heavy and almost none are built to constantly fire no matter what. After reading a lot of reports from people in a similar situation, my GPU should be able to handle this easily, so I have no idea why it's staying at such a low usage. If it really does come down to VRAM as you say, then SPM must be incorrectly reporting my VRAM usage at times, and I need to find out what it really is, because it might be spiking constantly just like my GPU usage does sometimes.

 

After some searching related to my issues, I found out that the cause might be a bottleneck, and that my GPU is actually quite powerful, but something is holding it back, and causing it to dip up and down. Looking at my CPU usage, I doubt that the bottleneck is my CPU, so it would have to be my VRAM, in which case going to Windows 7 truly would be helpful. However, I really love Windows 10 actually, and it came pre-installed on this laptop so I would need to get a new copy of Windows 7 I'm guessing if I want to install it. Even better, if I could run Windows 10 and Windows 7 on here and only use Windows 7 for when I want to play Skyrim that would be great. My two questions on this are:

1) Do you know of any guides related to this or how to do this? I'll look for some myself, but a point in the right direction would be helpful

2) Would all of my files be preserved? If changing the OS or running both at the same time mean I need to back up all of my files and then re-insert them into my system it's going to be a slight pain.

 

Regarding VRAM and what I can do now, I'm going to try doing a test where I take off most of my HD textures and see what happens. I already did a test with no ENB down below.

 

 

You have a laptop?  Ah, well... normally I'd say the best and most obvious advice for creating a dual boot PC is to get a second 240GB or larger SSD for the second operating system but I'm not sure how you'll do that unless your laptop actually includes a second 2.5 inch drive bay.  Some do nowadays, especially gaming ones.  

There are a ton of online tutorials and videos on how to make a dual boot system, find whichever medium is best for you.  Good luck!

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Honestly, I don't think my GPU is working hard enough at all, I think that something is holding it back completely. I've done some tests where my VRAM goes up quite high, to what Performance Monitor says is 4400MB (again, quite confused about this because I'm aware of the 4GB VRAM limit, maybe SPM is reporting it incorrectly?), but my GPU will stay at around 20% sometimes while going through Whiterun, which is why my fps is also so low. I barely have any 4K textures, I play on 1080p, a lot of my mods have scripts, but only a few are truly script-heavy and almost none are built to constantly fire no matter what. After reading a lot of reports from people in a similar situation, my GPU should be able to handle this easily, so I have no idea why it's staying at such a low usage. If it really does come down to VRAM as you say, then SPM must be incorrectly reporting my VRAM usage at times, and I need to find out what it really is, because it might be spiking constantly just like my GPU usage does sometimes.

 

After some searching related to my issues, I found out that the cause might be a bottleneck, and that my GPU is actually quite powerful, but something is holding it back, and causing it to dip up and down. Looking at my CPU usage, I doubt that the bottleneck is my CPU, so it would have to be my VRAM, in which case going to Windows 7 truly would be helpful. However, I really love Windows 10 actually, and it came pre-installed on this laptop so I would need to get a new copy of Windows 7 I'm guessing if I want to install it. Even better, if I could run Windows 10 and Windows 7 on here and only use Windows 7 for when I want to play Skyrim that would be great. My two questions on this are:

1) Do you know of any guides related to this or how to do this? I'll look for some myself, but a point in the right direction would be helpful

2) Would all of my files be preserved? If changing the OS or running both at the same time mean I need to back up all of my files and then re-insert them into my system it's going to be a slight pain.

 

Regarding VRAM and what I can do now, I'm going to try doing a test where I take off most of my HD textures and see what happens. I already did a test with no ENB down below.

 

 

You have a laptop?  Ah, well... normally I'd say the best and most obvious advice for creating a dual boot PC is to get a second 240GB or larger SSD for the second operating system but I'm not sure how you'll do that unless your laptop actually includes a second 2.5 inch drive bay.  Some do nowadays, especially gaming ones.  
There are a ton of online tutorials and videos on how to make a dual boot system, find whichever medium is best for you.  Good luck!

 

 

 

 

Thank you! I'll certainly try my best!

 

 

 

Apologies for not updating recently, I've been damn busy. Anyways... I performed two more tests recently, and they went quite well.

In the first one, I tried a run through like usual except using Suki ENB instead of Rudy ENB; the author of Suki claims that it is about 4-6 frames more intensive than Rudy; I did this because if my GPU is pretty powerful but is being limited by my VRAM, then having a more performance-intensive ENB to bring up the GPU usage could help quite a bit.

In the second test, I stayed with Suki ENB, but took off a good deal of texture mods. Anything that wasn't a very essential texture pack, or wasn't connected to any esps in my load order was taken off (I kept Book of Silence, Skyrim HD, Brows, a few others, etc., but I took off textures such as Noble Skyrim, most of Gamwich's retextures, and some miscellaneous stuff like Ruins Clutter Improved). I did this because an abundance of HD textures is generally what causes the the VRAM to go up, so by removing these I was hoping to lower it by a bit so that my GPU could function more easily with it.

 

Here are the graphs:

 

 

 

Screenshot_8.pngScreenshot_9.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both tests are quite longer than usual, as I got carried away killing random people because it's been so long since I played Skyrim.

 

The first thing I noticed in my first test was that my stability and performance in Dragonsreach was the best it's ever been in any of my tests. Whiterun was also a lot better than usual, although there was still quite a bit of choppiness and it wasn't by any means good. GPU usage was a bit higher than usual, but it seemed that, especially in Whiterun, it still wasn't being used very much, maybe around 35-50% on average. Despite that, the frames were more stable, despite still not being super playable. Outside was quite good (much better than usual), and I experienced a fairly stable framerate, although were certainly a good amount of laggy portions. Overall, frames didn't change too much, and VRAM usage stayed quite high, but it was a lot more stable.

 

My second test went extremely well. As usual, there was still annoying portions of lagginess, especially in Whiterun, but my frames went higher than usual no matter where I was, and my GPU usage was also fairly high, despite still not being used too much within Whiterun. Playing outside was amazing; I raided a fort and took out two Thalmor patrols with almost no lag whatsoever. During this test, because of using less overall VRAM, it was much easier to notice than when it did go high, it did indeed force my GPU usage down and my frames down as well. I am now very much convinced that using Windows 7 will highly improve the stability of my game.

 

 

Now on this matter, my Dad is actually being generous enough to send me a shipment with a copy of Windows 7 (he can get it for free because of his job), along with a spare external HDD that he had, and finally, a brand new 512GB external USB 3.1 SSD. I'll be using this SSD to set up my dual boot, and I've heard that USB 3.1 is quite fast, fast enough to compete with internal SATA.

 

Does anyone know how running Windows 7 and Skyrim off of a USB 3.1 SSD will compare to an internal SSD? I'm hoping the load times will not change too much.

 

Lastly, I'm still working on getting a Lost Longswords DSR mesh pack, but I found a guy on Reddit that might have one; hopefully he replies to me soon.

 

I'll do more tests, and as usual, put anything I find out on here.

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Both tests are quite longer than usual, as I got carried away killing random people because it's been so long since I played Skyrim.

 

The first thing I noticed in my first test was that my stability and performance in Dragonsreach was the best it's ever been in any of my tests. Whiterun was also a lot better than usual, although there was still quite a bit of choppiness and it wasn't by any means good. GPU usage was a bit higher than usual, but it seemed that, especially in Whiterun, it still wasn't being used very much, maybe around 35-50% on average. Despite that, the frames were more stable, despite still not being super playable. Outside was quite good (much better than usual), and I experienced a fairly stable framerate, although were certainly a good amount of laggy portions. Overall, frames didn't change too much, and VRAM usage stayed quite high, but it was a lot more stable.

 

My second test went extremely well. As usual, there was still annoying portions of lagginess, especially in Whiterun, but my frames went higher than usual no matter where I was, and my GPU usage was also fairly high, despite still not being used too much within Whiterun. Playing outside was amazing; I raided a fort and took out two Thalmor patrols with almost no lag whatsoever. During this test, because of using less overall VRAM, it was much easier to notice than when it did go high, it did indeed force my GPU usage down and my frames down as well. I am now very much convinced that using Windows 7 will highly improve the stability of my game.

 

 

Now on this matter, my Dad is actually being generous enough to send me a shipment with a copy of Windows 7 (he can get it for free because of his job), along with a spare external HDD that he had, and finally, a brand new 512GB external USB 3.1 SSD. I'll be using this SSD to set up my dual boot, and I've heard that USB 3.1 is quite fast, fast enough to compete with internal SATA.

 

Does anyone know how running Windows 7 and Skyrim off of a USB 3.1 SSD will compare to an internal SSD? I'm hoping the load times will not change too much.

 

Lastly, I'm still working on getting a Lost Longswords DSR mesh pack, but I found a guy on Reddit that might have one; hopefully he replies to me soon.

 

I'll do more tests, and as usual, put anything I find out on here.

 

I'm sure gaming on an external hdd, especially with USB 3.1 won't effect the performance, only the load times of which should be marginally (negligibly) slower than if you had the hdd directly connected to the motherboard.  

 

In other news, I ran and re-ran Ordenator (Skyrim Texture Optimizer), first time resizing any textures larger than 2048, and then the second time resizing any textures larger than 1024.  Now my game runs smoother (stutter is rare) and it's significantly more playable.  I never had a problem before with any interior cells but the exterior world of Skyrim was lagging every 20 feet, especially when nearing a town or city.  I didn't want to downsize the textures past 1024kb but I had to.  No choice.

Also note, I only ran Ordenator on these folders:  Architecture, Landscape. Plants, Terrain, and Clutter.  I'm sure I would've got more performance if I ran Ordenator to resize everything else like my Armors, Clothing, Weapons, and Actors/Creatures but I really don't want to spoil the look of my Skyrim.  I can already tell if I walk up close to my former 4k Architecture and Landscape textures that they look blurry now.  But only very up close.  From a normal distance it looks very much the same.

Still saving for 2x 1080 Ti's.  Gonna be glorious!

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Both tests are quite longer than usual, as I got carried away killing random people because it's been so long since I played Skyrim.

 

The first thing I noticed in my first test was that my stability and performance in Dragonsreach was the best it's ever been in any of my tests. Whiterun was also a lot better than usual, although there was still quite a bit of choppiness and it wasn't by any means good. GPU usage was a bit higher than usual, but it seemed that, especially in Whiterun, it still wasn't being used very much, maybe around 35-50% on average. Despite that, the frames were more stable, despite still not being super playable. Outside was quite good (much better than usual), and I experienced a fairly stable framerate, although were certainly a good amount of laggy portions. Overall, frames didn't change too much, and VRAM usage stayed quite high, but it was a lot more stable.

 

My second test went extremely well. As usual, there was still annoying portions of lagginess, especially in Whiterun, but my frames went higher than usual no matter where I was, and my GPU usage was also fairly high, despite still not being used too much within Whiterun. Playing outside was amazing; I raided a fort and took out two Thalmor patrols with almost no lag whatsoever. During this test, because of using less overall VRAM, it was much easier to notice than when it did go high, it did indeed force my GPU usage down and my frames down as well. I am now very much convinced that using Windows 7 will highly improve the stability of my game.

 

 

Now on this matter, my Dad is actually being generous enough to send me a shipment with a copy of Windows 7 (he can get it for free because of his job), along with a spare external HDD that he had, and finally, a brand new 512GB external USB 3.1 SSD. I'll be using this SSD to set up my dual boot, and I've heard that USB 3.1 is quite fast, fast enough to compete with internal SATA.

 

Does anyone know how running Windows 7 and Skyrim off of a USB 3.1 SSD will compare to an internal SSD? I'm hoping the load times will not change too much.

 

Lastly, I'm still working on getting a Lost Longswords DSR mesh pack, but I found a guy on Reddit that might have one; hopefully he replies to me soon.

 

I'll do more tests, and as usual, put anything I find out on here.

 

I'm sure gaming on an external hdd, especially with USB 3.1 won't effect the performance, only the load times of which should be marginally (negligibly) slower than if you had the hdd directly connected to the motherboard.  

 

In other news, I ran and re-ran Ordenator (Skyrim Texture Optimizer), first time resizing any textures larger than 2048, and then the second time resizing any textures larger than 1024.  Now my game runs smoother (stutter is rare) and it's significantly more playable.  I never had a problem before with any interior cells but the exterior world of Skyrim was lagging every 20 feet, especially when nearing a town or city.  I didn't want to downsize the textures past 1024kb but I had to.  No choice.
Also note, I only ran Ordenator on these folders:  Architecture, Landscape. Plants, Terrain, and Clutter.  I'm sure I would've got more performance if I ran Ordenator to resize everything else like my Armors, Clothing, Weapons, and Actors/Creatures but I really don't want to spoil the look of my Skyrim.  I can already tell if I walk up close to my former 4k Architecture and Landscape textures that they look blurry now.  But only very up close.  From a normal distance it looks very much the same.

Still saving for 2x 1080 Ti's.  Gonna be glorious!

 

 

 

 

Awesome! Thank you very much.

 

Haha two 1080 Ti's would certainly blow any game out of the water, I hope you get them so you don't have to use Ordenator anyore  :P

If I still experience stuttering even with Windows 7 though then I guess I'll have to give it a go too.

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Found playing with ReservedMemorySizeMb in the enblocal.ini removed stuttering myself although i had to set it pretty high

 

Mine is set to 13888 according to the calculations recommended by the program from the ENB developer's website itself:   http://enbdev.com/download_vramsizetest.htm

 

My game still performs badly.  Ran out of VRAM.

 

 

I think your thinking of the wrong field (if your not then changing that will probably help) as the VRAM tool is for working out VideoMemorySizeMb not the ReservedMemorySizeMb which is for

 

ReservedMemorySizeMb

This parameter sets the size of a buffer used for swapping geometry and textures between VRAM and system memory. The buffer will be set in VRAM and this portion of VRAM will not be used for ENBoost's dynamic memory allocation; however, it will also be duplicated in the system memory used by TESV.exe as well. This means that increasing this parameter's value will result in equal increases in both VRAM and system RAM usage. The values here are measured in megabytes. For video cards with 1GB or more VRAM, start with 128 as a baseline. If stuttering persists, increase the value in increments of 128 ( 256, 384, 512, etc ) until the stuttering has ceased or is as minimal as possible with the lowest possible value. The maximum value that can be used is 1024, but be aware that whatever value is used is how much VRAM will be reserved for the swap space. This is the reason the lowest value possible without experiencing issues is recommended. Because of this parameter being system dependent, users will need to test different values to find the one which works best for their specific setup.

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBlocal_INI/Memory

 

Edit: Spoiler seems to be messing with thread, probably from the unclosed spoiler 5 posts above :)

 

Edit 2: The VRAM tool for me on win10 says the max is 4064 not 4096 so if the original enblocal.ini posted at the top is still being used changing that is probably a good idea

 

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Found playing with ReservedMemorySizeMb in the enblocal.ini removed stuttering myself although i had to set it pretty high

 

Mine is set to 13888 according to the calculations recommended by the program from the ENB developer's website itself:   http://enbdev.com/download_vramsizetest.htm

 

My game still performs badly.  Ran out of VRAM.

 

 

I think your thinking of the wrong field (if your not then changing that will probably help) as the VRAM tool is for working out VideoMemorySizeMb not the ReservedMemorySizeMb which is for

 

ReservedMemorySizeMb

This parameter sets the size of a buffer used for swapping geometry and textures between VRAM and system memory. The buffer will be set in VRAM and this portion of VRAM will not be used for ENBoost's dynamic memory allocation; however, it will also be duplicated in the system memory used by TESV.exe as well. This means that increasing this parameter's value will result in equal increases in both VRAM and system RAM usage. The values here are measured in megabytes. For video cards with 1GB or more VRAM, start with 128 as a baseline. If stuttering persists, increase the value in increments of 128 ( 256, 384, 512, etc ) until the stuttering has ceased or is as minimal as possible with the lowest possible value. The maximum value that can be used is 1024, but be aware that whatever value is used is how much VRAM will be reserved for the swap space. This is the reason the lowest value possible without experiencing issues is recommended. Because of this parameter being system dependent, users will need to test different values to find the one which works best for their specific setup.

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBlocal_INI/Memory

 

Edit: Spoiler seems to be messing with thread, probably from the unclosed spoiler 5 posts above smile.png

 

Edit 2: The VRAM tool for me on win10 says the max is 4064 not 4096 so if the original enblocal.ini posted at the top is still being used changing that is probably a good idea

 

 

Oh you're right, I just get those mixed up.  My settings have always been:  ReservedMemorySizeMb=64, VideoMemorySizeMb=13888.  

Increasing or decreasing ReservedMemorySizeMb does nothing for my game.  Also, anybody with a 900 series Nvidia card and up never needs to go past 64mb.  I have a 980 Ti.  Two of them, in fact.  Apparently 6GB of VRAM is still not enough.  Lol.

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Found playing with ReservedMemorySizeMb in the enblocal.ini removed stuttering myself although i had to set it pretty high

 

Mine is set to 13888 according to the calculations recommended by the program from the ENB developer's website itself:   http://enbdev.com/download_vramsizetest.htm

 

My game still performs badly.  Ran out of VRAM.

 

 

I think your thinking of the wrong field (if your not then changing that will probably help) as the VRAM tool is for working out VideoMemorySizeMb not the ReservedMemorySizeMb which is for

 

ReservedMemorySizeMb

This parameter sets the size of a buffer used for swapping geometry and textures between VRAM and system memory. The buffer will be set in VRAM and this portion of VRAM will not be used for ENBoost's dynamic memory allocation; however, it will also be duplicated in the system memory used by TESV.exe as well. This means that increasing this parameter's value will result in equal increases in both VRAM and system RAM usage. The values here are measured in megabytes. For video cards with 1GB or more VRAM, start with 128 as a baseline. If stuttering persists, increase the value in increments of 128 ( 256, 384, 512, etc ) until the stuttering has ceased or is as minimal as possible with the lowest possible value. The maximum value that can be used is 1024, but be aware that whatever value is used is how much VRAM will be reserved for the swap space. This is the reason the lowest value possible without experiencing issues is recommended. Because of this parameter being system dependent, users will need to test different values to find the one which works best for their specific setup.

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBlocal_INI/Memory

 

Edit: Spoiler seems to be messing with thread, probably from the unclosed spoiler 5 posts above :)

 

Edit 2: The VRAM tool for me on win10 says the max is 4064 not 4096 so if the original enblocal.ini posted at the top is still being used changing that is probably a good idea

 

 

 

 

I haven't tried tweaking the Reserved Memory line yet, so I guess I might as well just to see. Thanks for letting me know. And yes, since I posted the original enblocal.ini on here I have since used Boris' tool and changed it to 4064.

 

I'll update back after I do some tests with the line you recommended.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello again everyone, I'm back with some news.

 

After some waiting and a long and arduous process, I've updated my computer to Windows 10 Insider Build 16232; this has fixed the VRAM issue and I am now able to use a lot more than previously. I got into Skyrim, ran around a bit, and I have to say, it is a welcome improvement. I received barely any stuttering throughout both interiors, cities, and exteriors. However, my FPS is still fluctuating, and my GPU is still not being made use of enough. As it was previously, when my GPU goes up, so do my frames, and when my GPU doesn't, my frames stay low. It still has low usage inside interiors and cities and high usage in exteriors.

 

Any ideas on how to bring my GPU usage up? I'm very much at the end of my ropes here.

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Hello again everyone, I'm back with some news.

 

After some waiting and a long and arduous process, I've updated my computer to Windows 10 Insider Build 16232; this has fixed the VRAM issue and I am now able to use a lot more than previously. I got into Skyrim, ran around a bit, and I have to say, it is a welcome improvement. I received barely any stuttering throughout both interiors, cities, and exteriors. However, my FPS is still fluctuating, and my GPU is still not being made use of enough. As it was previously, when my GPU goes up, so do my frames, and when my GPU doesn't, my frames stay low. It still has low usage inside interiors and cities and high usage in exteriors.

 

Any ideas on how to bring my GPU usage up? I'm very much at the end of my ropes here.

First i thought it doesn't make any sense. In general you don't want to raise GPU usage - you want low usage to have more buffer if it has to do more work in some situations where the FPS would drop otherwise.

If your FPS still drop in those situations although your GPU usage goes up, that would make sense.

But if you're really sure that your FPS increase if your GPU usage goes up and not the other way around, my best guess is that some settings are at quality rather than performance, that results in lower FPS in general, then happens something that actually would make your FPS drop but your GPU (? or maybe power supply? anything else? not sure) "over compensates" and you get higher FPS. 

 

GPU usage is enough if your FPS are OK. If that means it uses 0.1%, that's not bad - it's perfect. If you're FPS aren't ok, try some other settings for your video driver. Might be a thing.

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In Nvidias control panel in Manage 3D settings section, you can click on Program Settings on the right and add tesv.exe. You can then scroll down to Power management mode and change the setting to Prefer Maximum Performance and then be sure to click Apply at the bottom. Doing that might get you a extra fps or two and stabilize fps overall. It helped me more with Skyrim SE than it does with Oldrim. 

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This problem may not be caused by your GPU at all. Have you considered your CPU temperature?

 

I was using the stock cooler provided with my i7 4790k which didn't cool it at all or was just broken...

 

My CPU would run at 99 degrees Celsius, throttling its usage and dropping my FPS considerably.

 

Having bought a new CPU cooler, it works perfectly, with little to no FPS drops.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello again everyone! I'm sorry for being away for so long, the past few weeks been amazingly hectic, and I haven't had time for basically anything Skyrim related.

 

I did, however, get around to some of your suggestions in the past few days, as well as follow another one of the most recent optimization guides on the Nexus for any tips and ini edits I may have missed. Here's the news I have, as well as the answers to some of the questions you posed for me:

 

 

I have not done any recent testing with my GPU as I already tested that pretty thoroughly with my ENB and graphical mods in the past; I would like to do a bit more testing on it, but I'm fairly certain that my GPU is holding up well. But again, more testing may prove me incorrect, especially seeing as my GPU temps are fairly high. (By saying this I don't mean that I'm no longer having GPU issues, just that I feel like something else is holding my GPU back, which is why it isn't being used near enough in certain situations).

 

I have got in touch with the guy who made the Lost Longswords DSR meshes. He has given them to me, although there is a small issue with the Daedric longsword sheath that he is working on.

 

I tried tweaking with my power settings in Nvidia Inspector to, unfortunately, little effect.

 

I did not previously consider my CPU temperature, and I have since started monitoring all of my core temps as well as usage to see how high they are going. In some areas, they are indeed going to a max of about 98, and averaging around 90. I plan to test this further, along with comparing what my CPU temps and usage are like when playing un-modded Skyrim. Perhaps it will give me some insights.

 

 

Following the optimization guide on the Nexus gave me a few more frames and a bit more general stability, although not much has changed overall. My game is playable, but I would rather make sure lag doesn't present itself in even the most heavy of situations. I'm currently going through my mod list and choosing what mods I consider essential to my playthrough and adding those +graphical mods. Assuming that this impacts my CPU greatly and my game becomes playable. I will go through with testing the remainder of my mods and picking and choosing which ones I want to add to my playthrough. Although, with that said, I designed my mod list to be as essential as possible throughout its entirety, so I would rather not get rid of anything if I can.

 

Due to this, any further suggestions are still extremely welcome, and I thank those of you that have contributed thus far immensely. I appreciate it.

 

I will report back after I've done more testing. Thank you again.

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